Quote of the Week: Theodore Annemann

A beautiful idea from our grandpa Theo, which encloses a lot of interesting truths for us as Mentalists, both in the inner reality and the outer reality of our practices.

First of all, the power of "simple methods" as he said. Why using something that is complicated?

Yes, maybe YOU enjoy that new gimmick, or hidden electronic, or whatever, but who are serving with your performance?

Simple (at least for me) is ALWAYS the best. It is fine to play with several options, but let your audiences and participants to enjoy always your best worked ideas, and in real world performances, being simple is a value.

We can also see this "simple methods" in terms of inner needed procedures. If you can do a book test using a direct method such as flashback (with our "Little Prince Book Test" for example), why then using other convoluted method that gives you the same outcome (a thought of word that you can reveal) but using unnecessary time ?

Be simple with your core methods, but also with your procedures. If the procedures needs to be long (which can be tend to boredom), maybe it is better to explore other options, right?

Now lets see the other dimension of this quote from Theo. A "simple method" and also a "direct-to-the point" presentation.

In here we can see the relevance of understanding our performance as a creation in two dimensions of reality. You are creating a inner reality (only known by you) and the outer reality (the one that your audience feel as real).

What is a "direct to the point presentation"?

Just use a descriptive script?

Dont be a storyteller?

I dont think so that is that easy to understand, obviously depending on personal style and communicative desires in performance.

Personally, I love the concept of narrative in each of my performances. I dont use "descriptive scripts" alone because I feel that they are too dry and too procedural. I want people to enjoy the emotional experience of the performance, not to focus in the procedure. Yes, some instructions are obviously neccesary, but the script serves an emotional purpose, not rational at the end.

So, if we understand the beauty of the outer reality as a bonsai, we can create something so essential, so beautiful and so simple, that people can enjoy in a direct manner, without any complex unneccesary rationalizations or moments that dont need to be there.

Be sure first of what do you want to communicate with your routine, and then work a script that works for your style.

In a simple example, we can take a propless routine called "Mind Map" (from my eBook NADA)

We can offer just a descriptive script in which we just verbally say what we do in the procedure, offer a little bit of extra narrative about journeys, travels, desires and potential future destination.

Everything is a personal opinion and style, but always, no matter what, keep "simple" as a value both in your inner reality and your outer reality.